getting out of our own way…1-26-15

I hadn’t been feeling well for several days. Yet it was Saturday afternoon and this commitment to teach Intro to 5Rhythms was long-standing and I am too much a professional to do anything other than show up. Maybe you’re like that too…a woman of my word, sometimes to a fault, for sure. As the first sounds filled the space, I felt my spirit lift on wings of music. And what to play and what to say and how to impart my deep love for this practice in a quick two hours, to the diverse variety of experience present in the room…well it all just began to flow. By the time we were complete, I felt immeasurably better. It is so obvious that movement is medicine. Look for the next Intro to 5R in this perfect space on April 11.

Two of the students who came are Sunday Dancers, my newly-coined name for those of you who love to show up on Sunday morning only. In 2014 I finally understood why Gabrielle considered Sweat Your Prayers an advanced practice for students who had been receiving instruction a long time. The Sweat Your Prayers format gives those with experience an opportunity to work their practice independently. Like going to yoga classes a long time and then rolling your mat out and doing it yourself. Now Sweat Your Prayers is a global phenomena with a life of its own, beautiful in many ways. And many show up and dive in with no roots in the particulars, no context for understanding some of what is coming to pass on the dance floor.

Anytime we begin to move freely, whenever we invite our bodies to find expression, especially when we shut up for two hours and actually feel…well, much can ultimately arise: physically, emotionally, head trip-wise, spiritually, you name it. When I facilitate, I see the outward manifestation of this truth. I also fielded many a phone call last year from those of you unsure of how to deal with some of the issues coming to light. Some Sunday Dancers have complimentary practices that support and serve them, help them deal with challenges that may emerge on the dance floor. Some stay stuck week after week, year after year in a limited movement vocabulary, ancient habitual patterns a sorry substitute for the new possibilities that often emerge with instructional practice. Some come for awhile, until the shit hits the fan, and then never return.

If I let it, it breaks my heart. But mostly I rest in a deep patient knowing that we all have our unique timeline. And if anyone is willing to listen, I invite them to take a leap, explore your juicy edge, dive in on Thursday, open to the possibility that there is so much more going on inside than you ever knew. And it can really be a life-changer when that juice becomes readily available. I’m sure I haven’t heard it all, but I’ve heard plenty. I know there are those quite adamant about not wanting instruction, those who god-help-me do not ask me to take a partner, those who just want to be left alone to ride the interior ecstatic replay loops.

It’s as difficult to name this as it is to witness. I have no answers…but I do have questions. When we humbly (love that word!) take those gently offered questions into our bodies, get out of our own way, we eventually realize that everything we ever need to know is right there on a cellular level. Thank you to those of you who took the first time leap this month. There is one more Thursday in January for you to come for free if you have never been.

Thank you to all the gorgeous Movement as Medicine volunteers who gathered Sunday learning how to work together March 15 to create a successful event. This time (still feeling under the weather!) my spirit was lifted by the unbridled enthusiasm, the steady willingness, the vast life years of experience present in this group. We just pulled together, did what was needed and literally kept the ball in forward motion for this fundraiser. We are particularly in need of bigger ticket donation items for the Silent Auction. Anyone have a vacation get away weekend to donate? Stuff like that!

Still noticing all the ways I don’t get out of my own way…love, bella